Good morning.It’s Wednesday July 27, 2016, and this is your first early morning briefing.

Tonight’s Premieres:A&E: Black and White at 10:30pPop: Sing it On at 9pReelz: Too Young to Die at 10p

Tonight’s Finales:Discovery: American Tarzan at 10pDIY: Sight Unseen at 9:30pFOX: Wayward Pines at 9pPop: Rock This Boat: New Kids on the Block at 8pTLC: I Am Jazz at 10p

IN THE NEWS

AMC’s TURN: Washington’s Spies will conclude with a fourth and final 10-episode season. The Revolutionary War drama drew an average 1.2 million viewers during season three, and was one of the top 10 most affluent scripted drama among A18-49 and A25-54. Exec producer and showrunner Craig Silverstein will remain at the helm, with a new overall deal that includes developing other projects.

Verizon lost 41,000 FiOS video subscribers in 2Q16 thanks to a seven-week worker strike, according CFO Fran Shammo, speaking at an earnings call on Tuesday. “When we settled with the representative employees, there was a large backlog of installations,” said Shammo. “As we sit here today, it’s back to normal. But during the strike, we didn’t do any advertising…. We feel like we’ll be back in stride by the fourth quarter.” Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam offered a sunny outlook on the acquisition last year of AOL and recent deal for Yahoo. “We have heard advertisers say to us they have more ads to place than places to put them,” said McAdam. “We’ll be one of the few who can deliver advertising across the home and across the mobile Internet.”

Beyonce landed 11 nominations and Adele picked up eight for the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. MTV revealed the “Video of the Year” nominees yesterday on a mural in NYC, broadcast during a Facebook Live event. Show airs Sunday, August 28 at 9p.

Telemundo signed an exclusive contract with Mexican actress and singer Mariana Seoane and she’s not playing nice.The telenovela vet’s first project will be El Chema, in which she’ll star as an “ambitious, jealous, heartless and cruel woman.”

On a different note, Noticias Telemundo, the news division of Telemundo, is partnering with Spanish-language daily newspaper La Opinion to produce news content aimed at Hispanic Americans. Included is the launch of “Telemundo and La Opinion Present,” a series of stories on Latino issues headed for TV, print and the digital platforms of both organizations.

Homeland security expert Fran Townsend has been named Senior National Security Analyst for CBS News, contributing across broadcasts and platforms. Townsend was Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism from 2004-2008, and chaired the Homeland Security Council.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Virtual & Augmented Reality, from A-Z

Did you miss your chance to listen in on this webinar? If so, don’t worry!
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Virtual + Augmented Reality are not things of the future, they are topics that you must learn about

Spike ordered Caraoke Showdown, hosted and exec produced by Craig Robinson (The Office), to series. As driver, Robinson picks up unsuspecting contestants for a karaoke-inspired game show slated for a 2017 bow. Howie Mandel is exec producer with Alice Dickens-Koblin, Peter Herschko, Brian Veskosky; production company is CORE Media Group.

Meanwhile, a new series based on Late Late Show segment/viral hit “Carpool Karaoke” has found a global home at Apple Music via an exclusive first-window licensing agreement. The series will be produced by CBS Television Studios and Fulwell 73, with Late Late Show host James Corden and Fulwell’s Ben Winston as creators and exec producers.

Children and family production company Wonkybot Studios is developing superhero podcast The Secret Diaries of Tara Tremendous into an animated series for kids 4-8 and their families. “We made the right decision to launch the character in a podcast in order to build awareness,” said Wonkybot CEO Stewart St John.

Derek Wax (Kudos) is setting up his own drama production company within Endemol Shine Group. The first project from Wild Mercury Productions will be Troy: Fall of a City for BBC1.

Distribution360 struck a partnership with Vancouver production company Partners in Motion that calls for the companies to co-develop a slate of new factual content, with Distribution360 taking on the international distribution of the Partners in Motion catalogue in all territories.

Beyonce and Adele each grabbed a fistful of MTV VMA noms. Who do you think will be the big winner come show night? Let us know in the new Cynopsis poll: http://www.cynopsis.com/poll/

COMING UP

Lifetime’s Girl in the Box, based on the true story of a young woman kidnapped and held as a sex slave, premieres Saturday, September 10 at 8p. The film will be followed by two-part docu-special Colleen Stan: The Girl in the Box, featuring news footage and first-hand accounts of the real-life saga and the victim’s journey to a new life.

Rodeo special Best of the Best premieres on RFD-TV tonight at 8:30p. Events include barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping, tie-down roping and team roping.

Sony Movie Channel celebrates 70 years of bikinis with an “Endless Bikini Summer” marathon every Tuesday in August at 10p. First up: All American Bikini Car Wash and Malibu Spring Break on August 2.

Accusations, confessions and meltdowns enliven a two-part Shahs of Sunset reunion on Tuesday, August 2 at 9p and Wednesday, August 3 at 10p on Bravo. Andy Cohen hosts.

Awards alert: Who will IT be and what will IT take to make our Digital "It" List? See if you or someone on your team has earned a spot!

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Exclusive: North Woods Law: Washington State premieres on Animal Planet Thursday, August 25 at 10p.The series, which ran for two seasons as Rugged Justice, has been rebranded as part of the net’s popular “law” franchise (for the past four weeks, Lone Star Law on Thursdays has hit series highs in the A25-54 demo). The six-episode season of North Woods Law continues to follow fish and wildlife police officers as they protect the land, rescue citizens and enforce conservation.

Ink Master is back for season eight on Spike TV on Tuesday, August 23 at 10p.In a twist, mentors Oliver Peck and Chris Nunez pick their own teams of tattoo artists from a record 30 contestants.

TLC’s Counting On returns Tuesday, August 23 at a new time: 8p. Season two includes the courtship of Jinger Duggar and professional soccer player Jeremy Vuolo (spoiler alert: they’re now engaged).

Tuesday, October 11 is a big day for BET. The season five premiere at 9p of Real Husbands of Hollywood is followed by the series debuts of The Gary Owen Show at 9:30p, and Hustle & Blow at 10p. Also in October: the BET Hip Hop Awards.

CASTING

Virginia Madsen landed a major recurring role in ABC’s upcoming Designated Survivor, as a political rival of the character played by Keifer Sutherland. Drama debuts Wednesday, September 21 at 10p.

Will Chase (Nashville) will recur on HBO’s The Deuce, starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, about the rise of the porn industry in NYC.

Former WWE star Adam Copeland (Haven) will recur on season five of History’s Vikings as a fierce warrior.

DIGITAL DOINGS

Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings tallied 3.3 million tweets sent by 693,000 people in the U.S. about the first night of the Democratic Convention. Activity spiked at 10:21, with 30,400 tweets sent in one minute following First Lady Michelle Obama’s well-received speech.

Ranking number one on the list of series on Xfinity On Demand for the week of July 11 was the season three premiere of Power. With 686,000 views, the Starz drama had a 61 percent lift versus its season two launch.

TBS apologized for a Monday night tweet (since deleted) created from its website, The Heckler, that compared Hillary Clinton to a hyena. “This post was obviously a poor attempt at humor and has been taken down. Moving forward we’ll leave political satire to professionals like Samantha Bee,” said the net in a statement. Bee, star of TBS’s Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, had retweeted the hyena remark and added, “Delete your account.”

Telemundo is teaming with YouTube Spaces for a YouTube Pop-Up Space at Miami’s Wynwood Warehouse Project, taking place now through July 28. The event brings together YouTube creators and Telemundo stars to generate original content, as well as compete for the “Best Novela Scene by YouTube Creators” award, to be presented at the Premios Tu Mundo 2016 Awards next month. “Telemundo is a true innovator that recognizes the value of engaging the YouTube community and has found new ways to collaborate with sought after creators,” said Juanjo Duran, head of multicultural content at YouTube.

Music site Baeble Music has joined streaming cable TV network Wurl. “As a digital-first programmer, creating the Baeble Music TV channel on the Wurl Network is the best of all worlds,” said David Moffly, CEO of Baeble Music. “We’re getting the enormous reach and familiar experience of TV combined with the deep engagement of streaming apps. We started Baeble ten years ago for this exact moment in time.” Wurl’s channels are broadband-delivered through cable TV operators’ Internet-connected set-top boxes.

Hulu and Funny or Die’s Triumph’s Summer Election Special 2016 premieres for Hulu subscribers Thursday, August 11. The special is created and executive produced by Robert Smigel and exec produced by Funny Or Die’s Anna Wenger and Mike Farah; Conan O’Brien, and Sue Fellows.

CMT has launched a new digital performance series, Next Women of Country LIVE, at CMT.com. Show features performances from 20 artists filmed live from CMT’s Nashville studio.

GLOBAL GOINGS ON

AMC Networks International is launching five channels with beIN, the pay-TV and entertainment platform in the Middle East and North Africa, on August 1 in 21 countries.Also launching on the platform are CBS Reality, Extreme Sports Channel, Outdoor Channel and pre-school channel JimJam.

A+E Networks Asia’s FYI has launched a first-of-its-kind content marketing partnership with Samsung Galaxy Life that includes exclusive short-form content focused on fashion, food, travel and home improvement. “FYI is a unique television brand for the digital age and the partnership with Samsung Galaxy Life is the first of many that will reflect our digital distribution strategy,” said Prem Kamath, deputy managing director, A+E Networks Asia. “The tailored content that we are creating blends both FYI and Samsung’s passion points together to engage with an audience of digital natives.”

The European Commission accepted commitments by ViacomInc.’s Paramount Pictures to change agreements with Sky that forced the pay-TV company to ensure customers outside the UK and Ireland couldn’t access films online or via satellite. Also under the watchdog’s eye are Sony, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, NBCUniversal and Disney for possible unlawful restriction of access to their content in Britain.

SYNDICATION

Bellum Entertainment announced it has cleared year two of its Monday-Friday strip series Corrupt Crimes in 10 of the top 10 markets, 20 of the top 20, and 47 of the top 50 markets. The program will be delivered with two different half hours that stations can run back to back. Stations from groups including CBS, Sinclair, Weigel, Nexstar, Media General, Tegna, Hearst, Cox, Meredith, and Gray, among others, have cleared the show, representing 86 percent of the country.

The sixth season of Litton’s Weekend Adventure programming block, airing Saturday mornings on ABC stations, will include new series Ocean Treks with Jeff Corwin. Returning are Jack Hanna’s Wild Countdown, Sea Rescue, The Wildlife Docs, Outback Adventure with Tim Faulkner and Rock the Park. New season launches October 1.

DISTRIBUTION

Katz Broadcasting networks Escape, Grit and Laff launched in multiple markets on station groups including E.W. Scripps Company, Cox Media Group, MidwestTelevision, Morris Network, Cordillera Communications and Holston Valley Broadcasting. Escape is now available to 85 percent of the U.S., Grit in 93 percent and Laff in 85 percent.

The first night of the Democratic National Convention topped the first night of last week’s GOP gathering, with a combined audience of 25.74 million viewers watching ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and NBC from 10p-11:30p Monday night versus 23.02 million for the Republican National Convention’s opening night.

Among the cable news nets, CNN delivered 6.2 million viewers and 2.2 million among A25-54 Monday from 10p-11:30p, followed by MSNBC (5 million and 1.4 million in the news demo). Fox News Channel, ratings winner for last week’s Republican event coverage, brought in 3.3 million total viewers and 898,000 among A25-54.

Dr. Phil jumped 18 percent week to week to a 2.6 rating, enough to snatch back the talk show lead from LIVE With Kelly, down 4 percent to 2.5. Top magazine shows Entertainment Tonight and Inside Edition were both up 8 percent, to 2.8.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s live broadcasts during the Republican National Convention last week averaged 2.52 million viewers, the CBS show’s largest weekly audience since May 6, up 21 percent in viewers versus the week prior and up 25 percent among A18-49, to .5. NBC’s Tonight Show still led the late night pack, though, with 2.73 million viewers and .72 among A18-49; ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live drew 1.7 million viewers and .35 in the demo.

Scripps Networks Interactive nets saw double-digit ratings increases in primetime (P25-54) for Saturday, July 23, with HGTV landing at number three and Food Network taking the number six spot in cable for the night. HGTV was up 24 percent, Food had a 10 percent boost and Travel Channel saw a 36 percent jump year-over-year. Top shows of the evening included HGTV’s House Hunters International and Food’s Chopped All-Stars.

The season three premiere of Starz’ Survivor’s Remorse delivered 883,000 viewers in Live+SD Nielsens, up 164 percent versus the season two debut. Among A18-34 the episode was up 373 percent.

Top Ten Basic Cable Network Live+7 Performance amongTotal Viewersfor the week of:7/4/2016Primetime (000)/Total Prog. Day (000)FOXN 2447/FOXN 1516HGTV 1715/NICK 1370USA 1630/DSNY 1117HIST 1505/ TOON 1071DSNY 1392/ADSM* 1055TBSC 1334/HGTV 948TNT 1258/NAN* 915ADSM 1242/CNN 825DISC 1233/USA 809FOOD 1132/ESPN 746Source: Turner Research from The Nielsen Company data. All ratings based on Total US Television Universe of 116,400,000 homes. * + Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24 hour day. Notes: Data based on most currently available Nielsen Data stream; Preliminary: Live+7. Primetime is Mon-Sat 8p-11p and Sun 7p-11p. Total day is Mon-Sun 6a-6a for household and demographic performances.

Top Ten Basic Cable Network Live+7 Performance among A18-49for the week of 7/4/2016Primetime (000), Total Prog. Day (000)ADSM 676/ADSM* 600USA 627/NAN* 458TBSC 616/NICK 409HGTV 519/ESPN 323FX 495/TOON 312BRAV 489/HGTV 305DISC 472/USA 295FOOD 471/TBSC 293HIST 451/FX 276TNT 450/DSNY and TNT 268Source: Turner Research from The Nielsen Company data. All ratings based on Total US Television Universe 116,400,000 homes. * + Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24 hour day. Notes: Data based on most currently available Nielsen Data stream; Preliminary: Live+7. Primetime is Mon-Sat 8p-11p and Sun 7p-11p. Total day is Mon-Sun 6a-6a for household and demographic performance.

Top-Rated CableShows among A18-49 for the week of 7/4/2016Portugal/France (ESPN) 2171Love & Hip Hop Atlanta (VH1) 2096Keeping Up with the Kardashians (E!) 1854Preacher (AMC) 1645WWE Entertainment (USA) 1524WWE Entertainment (USA) 1465The Real Housewives of New Jersey (BRAV) 1425The Haves and the Have Nots (OWN) 1424Deadliest Catch (Discovery) 1407)Alaskan Bush People (Discovery) 1384Source: Turner Research from The Nielsen Company data. All ratings based on Total US Television Universe 116,400,000homes. * + Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24 hour day. Notes: Data based on most currently available Nielsen Data stream; Preliminary: Live+7. Primetime is Mon-Sat 8p-11p and Sun 7p-11p. Total day is Mon-Sun 6a-6a for household and demographic performance.

Top 11 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of July 11, 2016 ranked in order by A18-49 RtgFamily Feud (2/T) 2.1AA
The Big Bang Theory (WB) 1.9AA
Judge Judy (CTD) 1.5AA
Modern Family (2/T) 1.4AA
Family Guy (2/T) 1.3AA
Wheel of Fortune (CTD) 1.2AA
Jeopardy (CTD) 1.1AA
The Cleveland Show (2/T) 1.0AA
2 Broke Girls (WB) 1.0AA
Two and a Half Men (WB) .9AA
How I Met Your Mother (2/T) .9AASource: Nielsen Media Research

Broadcast Evening News Shows Weekly Average Ratings week of July 18, 2016NBC Nightly News 7.561 million total viewers, 1.6/7 and 1.87 million A25-54ABC World News Tonight 7.500 million total viewers, 1.4/6 and 1.63 million A25-54CBS Evening News 6.091 million total viewers, 1.1/5 and 1.36 million A25-54

Broadcast Morning News Shows Weekly Average Ratings week of July 18, 2016ABC Good Morning America 4.12 million total viewers, 1.1/10 and 1.3 million A25-54NBC Today 3.96 million total viewers, 1.3/12 and 1.53 million A25-54CBS This Morning 3.297 million total viewers, .8/7 and 922,000 A25-54

Broadcast Sunday Morning News Shows July 24, 2016CBS Face the Nation 3.496 million total viewers, .6 and 740,000 A25-54NBC Meet the Press 3.384 million total viewers, .9 and 1.07 million A25-54ABC This Week 3.044 million total viewers, .7 and 855,000 A25-54CBS Face the Nation-2 2.402 million total viewers, .4 and 507,000 A25-54FOX News Sunday 1.200 million total viewers, .3 and 326,000 A25-54

Monday A18-49 Analysis:ABC drew the most A18-49 viewers Monday with 1.5/5, according to final primetime national ratings from Nielsen. ABC’s The Bachelorette led at 8p with 2.0/8, followed by 1.7/6 for NBC’s American Ninja Warrior. The Bachelorette held the lead at 9p with 1.9/7, versus 1.7/6 for NBC’s Warrior. NBC rose to first at 10p with 1.1/4 for its coverage of the Democratic National Convention; ABC’s convention coverage and Univision’s Por Siempre Joan Sebastian tied for second with .9/3.

Sunday A18-49 Analysis:ABC won the most A18-49 viewers Sunday with 1.2/5, according to final primetime national ratings from Nielsen. CBS’s 60 Minutes topped 7p with .9/4, opposite .7/3 for ABC’s America’s Funniest Home Videos. CBS stayed in the lead at 8p with 2.0/8 for Big Brother; ABC’s Celebrity Family Feud landed in second place with 1.5/6. ABC climbed to first at 9p with 1.4/5 for The $100,000 Pyramid, versus .7/3 for NBC’s American Ninja Warrior and Univision’s Va Por Ti 2. ABC’s Match Game led at 10p with 1.2/4; NBC’s Warrior fought for second with .8/3.

Saturday A18-49 Analysis:FOX hadthe most A18-49 viewers Saturday with 1.1/5, according to final primetime national ratings from Nielsen. Fox was first at 8p with .9/5 for UFC Fight Night, followed by .5/2 for NBC’s Movie Special. Fox rose to 1.2/6 to win the 9p hour, versus .6/3 for NBC’s Movie Special. Fox’s fight hit 1.5/7 from 10p-10:30p; NBC’s movie special scored .7/3 and ABC’s 20/20: In an Instant .6/3 in from 10p-11p.

Kevin Conroy is joining Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as President of Digitaland New Platforms. Previously, Conroy was Univision’s chief strategy and data officer.

Paramount Television named Eben Davidson as Senior Vice President of Development, overseeing unscripted television and the development of cross format content including scripted and live programming. Davidson joins from sister division Paramount Pictures, where he was Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Production.

Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific appointed Jay Trinidad as Senior Vice President & General Manager of Northeast Asia. Most recently, Trinidad was Vice President of Digital at McDonald’s Japan.

Mission Control Media hired Nicholas Oakley-Tilley as Senior Vice President, Development. Oakley-Tilley had been head of West Coast development for HLN.

PwC’s Joe Atkinson was upped to Technology, InfoComm, Entertainment & Media Advisory Leader. Replacing him in the role of PwC’s Entertainment, Media & Communications Advisory Leader is Paige Hayes. Emmanuelle Rivet was hired for the new role of Technology practices cross-industry leader.

Pola Changnon was promoted to Senior Vice President of Marketing, Creative & Brand at Turner Classic Movies, and E.B. O’Neill was tapped to serve as Senior Director of Subscription Acquisition for Turner’s FilmStruck.

This Day in History: 1940 – Bugs Bunny was introduced in “A Wild Hare.”

Today’s Trivia Question: What was the first Happy Days spin-off on which Scott Baio was a series regular?(Email trivia@cynopsis.comwith your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone.).

AMC anagram: Thanked Wild Age(Email trivia@cynopsis.com; first three respondents with the correct answer who aren’t in trivia – will be posted along with the answer on www.Cynopsis.com.)

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EXPERT SERVICES ADS:These ads are for companies or people who offer an expertise in the field of media by way of production, voice over artistry, writing, set development, etc. For information on rates and specs for posting an Expertise Service ad email Trish atTrish@cynopsis.com

INTERNSHIPS – These positions are for credit only – nobody gets paid here. These ads are always posted for free, and students work for school credit only. For more information on the specs for posting an Internship ad, email Trish attrish@cynopsis.com.

FALL INTERNSHIPS CREDITS ONLY:FALL INTERN/Bookmarks4Fun/NYC or REMOTE: Consumer goods company seeks motivated interns to work on social media, research and marketing for a fun new kid’s product. Should be articulate and comfortable writing. No experience necessary. Apply: contact@bookmarks4fun.com(7/29)

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